Route links
- News
- Canadian politics
NPD leader Jagmeet Singh said he would take advantage of the supply and confidence agreement with the Liberals to push for this solution.
Date Posted:
June 7, 2022 • 3 hours ago • 2 minutes of reading • 252 comments Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), wants to tax surplus corporate profits and redistribute them to Canadians to alleviate the effects of inflation. David Kawai / Bloomberg
Content of the article
NPD leader Jagmeet Singh says Liberal government should respond to growing inflation crisis by taxing excess business profits and redistributing money directly to Canadians, with “ordinary families” receiving up to $ 1,000 .
Content of the article
At a news conference on Tuesday, Singh said: “We see clearly that corporations are making these massive profits, they are making record profits and their profit records are directly contributing to the rising cost of living.”
If companies only increased their prices to cope with rising costs, “then their profits would be similar to previous years. But they are not,” Singh said.
The government must take action, he argued, pointing to a Food Banks Canada poll released Monday that showed nearly a quarter of Canadians reported eating less than they thought they should because they didn’t have enough money to eat. The group warned that this summer will be the hardest food banks have seen in decades.
Content of the article
“We are saying that we are extending this to other sectors that are making excessive profits, particularly to supermarkets and oil and gas companies,” Singh said.
Overall, Canada’s corporate sector is experiencing some of the highest profits it has ever seen.
Jagmeet Singh
He noted that, “overall, the corporate industry in Canada is experiencing some of the highest profits they have ever seen.”
Singh said record corporate earnings accounted for at least a quarter of Canada’s current inflation, an argument previously made by David Macdonald, a senior economist at the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives. Singh also pointed to the UK, which has announced a 25% “extraordinary tax” on oil and gas companies.
The party is proposing to increase Canada’s child benefit by $ 500 and double the GST tax credit, which Singh said would help some 12.5 million Canadians. He said the NDP is open to different models of taxing excess profits, with an option to double the corporate tax rate on profits that exceed the normal range of previous years.
“What we want to see is a commitment to recognize, first of all, that there is this huge unexpected … this is above the rising costs,” he said.
When asked how the supply deal with the Liberals would take this request into account, Singh said “we will use our position to continue to come up with this solution”.
He accused liberals and conservatives of not having the “courage” to pursue excess corporate profits.
“Neither is willing to see this as a solution,” Singh said.